Seed-extracting machine.



UNITED STATES PATENT onruon.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 31, 1905.

Application filed March 11, 1905. Serial No. 249,669.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE EMERsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Monroe, in the county of Platte and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seed-Extracting Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in seed-extracting machines; and the purpose of my invention is to provide a machine for extracting in the field seeds of vegetables having a pulpy envelope-such as melons, squashes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and the likethe principal object of my invention being to provide the necessary power for operating the machine by means of suitable mechanism attached to the running-gear of the vehicle upon which the seed-extracting mechanism is mounted. I accomplish this by the mechanism disclosed in the accompanying drawing, Which is a vertical section through the vehicle and the seedextracting apparatus.

In the wagon (0 represents a sectional view of the body of the vehicle or wagon carrying the apparatus, the righthand end of the drawing being the front of the vehicle. Suitably mounted within the vehicle by means of the bearings is the axle 2', upon which is fixed the revolving sieve h, cylindrical in form.

a is the bottom of the vehicle, sloping to ward the center, which is provided with a sliding trap a 6 6 represent, respectively, the rear and front axles of the vehicle, and 0 0 the rear and front wheels.

a to represent a hopper into which the vegetables are thrown, a a being steps upon which the operator may stand while the machine is in motion. Within the hopper is a suitable drum g, provided with projections g, the drum being mounted upon the axle f, this mechanism serving to crush the vegetables as they are introduced, the arrow showing the. direction in which the drum revolves, the sloping floor of a serving to carry the crushed pulp into the revolving sieve h.

Fixed upon the axle f of the drum 9 is a spur-gear 0', meshing with a larger gear 0, which is mounted upon the side of the vehicle upon the axle cl. Fixed upon d is the pulley 0 and this pulley is driven by an endless band 0 and a driving-pulley 0, which is fixed to the rear axle b of the vehicle itself and revolves with it. Another pulley m is also fixed upon the axle .7) and by means of the endless band m drives the pulley m mounted upon the axle Z.

is it are beveled gears meshing with each othie; and fixed, respectively, upon the axles t' an The operation of my machine will be seen readily from. the foregoing description. As the vehicle is moved over the field in which the vegetables grow, either by a horse or other means of locomotion, theyare loaded upon the upper platform a and thence are shoveled into the hopper a. As the vehicle moves along the drum 9 revolves in the direction shown by the arrow by means of the pulleys 0 0 and the endless band 0, together with the gears e 6. At the same time the cylindrical sieve it is made to revolve by the pulleys m m the endless band m, and the beveled gears 7s in, the pulp being ejected from the front end of the sieve 7b while'the seeds escape through the meshes and accumulate in the bottom of the vehicle, so as to admit of easy removal through the trap (0 I do not particularly claim the interior mechanism of the revolving toothed drum g and the cylindrical sieve 7b, as I believe these are old and Well known in the art; but

What I do claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

In a seed-extracting machine, the combina tion of a Wheeled vehicle having a revolving axle, and having a body provided with a bottom sloping toward the center, with a trap located at its lowest point, and an axle journaled longitudinally in the vehicle-body, and having a gear at one end, a cylindrical sieve carried by said axle to revolve therewith and open at both ends, an axle Z journaled transversely in the vehicle-body and having a gear to mesh with the gear on the first-mentioned axle, a hopper mounted at the rear end of the vehicle-body and arranged to discharge into the rear end of the cylindrical sieve, a toothed drum within the hopper, and endless bands or belts driven by the axle of the vehicle, and operating said aforesaid axleZ and toothed drum to revolve the latter and the sieve in unison, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE EMERSON.

Witnesses:

H. J. HILL, 7 NORRIS S. FIFIELD. 

